A drinking party that lasted nearly two days has left one man dead and two others hospitalized in critical condition in the southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau.

According to police in the resort town of Vung Tau, investigations into the case began Friday, two days after 49-year-old Y Cu was found unconscious after the party with Nguyen Van Ba, 46, Pham Quoc Phong, 28, and two others.

Cu died soon after being admitted to the Long Son Commune Health Clinic.

Meanwhile, the next afternoon, Ba together with Phong suffered respiratory difficulties, lost vision and fell into comas. They were rushed to Ba Ria Hospital, where doctors said they remain in critical condition.

Initial information from police was that on Tuesday morning, the men had a drinking party at Ba's home which did not end until Wednesday afternoon when Cu complained of tiredness and lost his consciousness.

A report in Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper said police had taken samples of rice wine from the shop that sold the wine to the men.

Earlier this week, Tuoi Tre reported that one man died from and another was hospitalized with alcohol poisoning in the southern province of Long An after a drinking competition on Tuesday.

It said during the game, each of them consumed one liter of rice wine in a single go, and before that, the men had already shared one liter with three others.

According to the Health Ministry's Vietnam Food Administration, moonshine killed 66 out of 196 people who were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning between 2007 and August this year.

Most of the deaths were caused by ruou de (glutinous and non-glutinous rice wines) with high methanol content and rice wine made using poisonous herbs, it said.

The Health Ministry's policymaking institute is currently drafting a national policy of decreasing alcohol abuse, while the draft law on preventing alcohol abuse is set to be presented to the National Assembly for discussion in 2015.